Judge reduces arson sentence

By Bill Bishop

The Register-Guard

Published: Saturday, August 4, 2007

More than any legal argument, the human element motivated a federal judge on Friday to cut five months off of the prison term of Kendall Tankersley, one of 10 defendants convicted in Eugene for conspiring to use arson to promote their environmental views.

Tankersley, 30, was sentenced in late May to three years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy, arson and attempted arson for a fire that destroyed the U.S. Forest Industries office in Medford in late 1998.

She asked for reconsideration, claiming the judge improperly increased her sentence and treated her more harshly than others with similar involvement.

However, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken rejected the legal arguments. Instead, in reducing the sentence, Aiken cited Tankersley's extraordinary effort to turn away from criminal activism after she left the conspiracy after a relatively short involvement.

The decision nearly wraps up the largest ever investigation of arson and sabotage by environmental extremists, an investigation dubbed Operation Backfire by the local, state and federal agencies who conducted it over a nine-year period.

"If this case proves anything, it is that the FBI and its partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Force and in other law enforcement agencies are absolutely committed to defeating terrorism in this country," Acting Special Agent in Charge Daniel Nielsen said Friday. "We will not let those who inspire fear and commit criminal acts with the intent of changing the policies of our government or her people succeed. Whether a case takes one day or ten years, we will pursue it."

The case generated concern among civil liberties groups who criticized prosecutors for using the federal terrorism statute to label defendants as "terrorists" when their targets were government properties or their communiques defied government policies.

The terrorism law provides a significant increase in prison time when certain crimes are committed to influence government policies. However, Aiken decided early in the sentencing process to use her judicial power to increase sentences to the same extent when a defendant's crime involved only private property.

She reasoned that the conspirators attacked private properties to instill fear in individuals and businesses as an indirect assault on government forest or wildlife management policies related to the private targets.

In every case, Aiken then reduced potentially long terms to honor plea bargains. Then, again using her power, she further reduced all but one sentence by one or two steps in the federal sentencing guidelines process.

Tankersley's lawyer, Lee Foreman of Denver, argued the sentence increase was improper because Tankersley's target was private property. He also argued that other defendants who, like Tankersley, cooperated with investigators got larger sentence cuts.

Tankersley, who was on the verge of entering medical school when she was arrested in 2005, led an exemplary life after leaving the conspiracy in 1999, according to evidence in the case. Aiken noted Tankersley already has begun to pay more than $900,000 in restitution for the fire.

Aiken said Tankersley exemplifies the personal and societal loss that results when intelligent people make poor choices that derail their lives and damage communities.

"None of us will ever truly understand what swept everyone into thinking this was the way to go," Aiken said in court. "You have a lot to make up. I believe you and a number of defendants I have sentenced in this case will do that."

The joint investigation involved the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Oregon Department of Justice; Eugene Police; Bureau of Land Management; U.S. Forest Service; Oregon State Police and Lane County Sheriff's Office.

Three more cases are filed in Washington state. Four defendants are fugitives. A key figure who cooperated in the probe, Jacob Jeremiah Ferguson, remains to be sentenced.